Cotton Belt Dash 8-40B to be preserved at Illinois museum

From LocoNotes, posted here with permission:

LocoNotes wrote:Union Pacific has donated B40-8 UP 1848 to the Illinois Railway Museum. This is former SSW 8049 and the plan is to restore it to the as delivered paint scheme. The museum also plans to make it operational, with the unit being in surprisingly good shape in that regard.

This will be the second Dash 8 locomotive to be preserved in a museum setting (the first was a Norfolk Southern Dash 8-32B).

This is how she looked when new: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2193187" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

From the standpoint of museum viability, it's a great idea. IRM is a fantastic place.

From the standpoint of Illinois connections, is it? SSW/SP had no Illinois presence until 1989 when it bought the ex CMW/GM&O route, and then disappeared into UP in 1996. That's 7 years of SSW/SP in Illinois. GE has never had a facility in Illinois. It's a bit tough to justify this addition given that they're still trying to raise money for certain restorations and barns for existing equipment that ran in the state. This unit will have to be housed and restored and fueled, which takes scarce resources.

While I am glad to see this preserved, it means the end is near for B-B Dash 8s. A lot of them have been sold to short lines, (not all of them are ex-LMX units), although the second hand market for GEs is smaller than for EMDs. NS recently donated a Dash 8-32B, and a few other Dash 8-40Bs were recently scrapped, so the B-B Dash 8 resale market appears to be dead, and they haven't much time on Class One rosters.

Tadman you must have SSW confused with some other railroad. The St. Louis Southwestern Railway had trackage rights over the Missouri Pacific from East St. Louis to Gale, Illinois since 1905. You only missed it by 84 years! Now if you said Chicago presence you would have been right. The Cotton Belt had its own yard in East St. Louis called Valley Junction Yard. The railroad even originated a freight train from that Illinois yard in 1931 called the Blue Streak Merchandise. Perhaps you have heard of that?

Ed Cooper
CBRHS #114 Cotton Belt Chapter

Tadman wrote:From the standpoint of museum viability, it's a great idea. IRM is a fantastic place.

From the standpoint of Illinois connections, is it? SSW/SP had no Illinois presence until 1989 when it bought the ex CMW/GM&O route, and then disappeared into UP in 1996. That's 7 years of SSW/SP in Illinois. GE has never had a facility in Illinois. It's a bit tough to justify this addition given that they're still trying to raise money for certain restorations and barns for existing equipment that ran in the state. This unit will have to be housed and restored and fueled, which takes scarce resources.

With a 4000 HP locomotive, the IRM would be able to run longer trains on popular events like Days out with Thomas. Plus IRM is getting a former CN Steam Generator as well.